SF Giants Minor Lines, May 1

Kyle Crick discussions tend to engender a lot of hand wringing and tongue clucking (from yours truly as much as anybody) but its worth remembering how serious his stuff is and what a genuine major league arm he has (whichever direction it happens to be chucking things). To that end, let's all enjoy him start a game by blowing away three of the better hitting prospects in the minors:

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HIGHLIGHTS: Kyle Crick 1R, 1BB, 8Ks in 5.1 IP

Sacramento lost to El Paso (Padres), 7-6 in 13 innings

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS
LF-1b-3b	Adam Duvall	6	1	2	2	1	0	1	1	1	0	0
PH	Ben Turner	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
RF	Jarrett Parker	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0
CF-LF	Juan Perez	6	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0
3b-2b	Carlos Truinfel	6	1	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
PH-CF	Darren Ford	3	2	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	0

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Kevin Correia	6.0	4	2	2	2	4	1	1	0	3.00
Erik Cordier	1.0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	3.00
Cody Hall	3.0	0	0	0	2	3	0	0	0	1.20
Hunter Strickland, L, 1-1	1.2	4	3	3	0	3	0	0	0	2.84

The RiverCats played a miniature version of their 18 inning marathon from the opening weekend. A fairly normal 4-3 ballgame turned into an extra innings epic when this happened in the bottom of the 9th inning:

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Interestingly, despite the fact that Sacramento is one of the more offense suppressing hitting environments in the PCL, Duvall has hit 6 of his 7 HRs on the season at home. Of course, his .771 road SLG doesn't suggest that he's having much trouble there either. For the second time, he started the game in LF, as the Giants are perhaps looking for ways to get his bat into future lineups.

From there the game turned into the kind of affair where a player who makes a PH appearance in the 7th inning ends up getting 3 PA (and became one of the offensive stars of the game). On the flip side of the coin from Duvall, Juan Perez had a golden sombrero on the day and I don't even know what the term might be for what Jarrett Parker did. To make matters worse Parker also had his first two errors of the season in this game as well.

On the pitching side, the once and future Giant Kevin Correia made his 2015 debut with a splash:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">First two PAs against Correia: first pitch homer, four pitch walk. Only one true outcome left!</p>&mdash; groug (@moonwalkmcfly) <a href="https://twitter.com/moonwalkmcfly/status/594322112954773505">May 2, 2015</a></blockquote>

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Once the game moved into extra innings, Cody Hall did yeoman's work with 3 hitless and scoreless innings. Hunter Strickland came on in the 12th and struck out 3 of the first four hitters he faced (over 1.1 innings) but then an infield hit opened the door for 4 consecutive hits, the big blow being a bases clearing double. But the RiverCats mounted a comeback in the bottom of the 13th. After newcomer Ben Turner got a PH single to drive in two, 9th inning hero Adam Duvall came to the plate with the chance to tie it with a single or walk off with a third extra base hit. Alas, Adam flew out to right and Parker ended it with his 5th K of the game.

Richmond lost at New Britain (Rockies), 1-0

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS
LF	Devin Harris	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
CF	Javier Herrera	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Kyle Crick, L, 0-1	5.1	5	1	1	1	8	1	0	0	1.50
Joan Gregorio	1.2	1	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	2.70
Jose Casilla	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.87

There are only so many ways to say that Richmond's offense is struggling and I've used up all the ones I can think of. Veteran OFs Devin Harris and Javy Herrera were the only Squirrels to reach base twice. They registered 8 hits, all singles, and 10 baserunners overall. One of their best chances to score came when Jackson Williams warning track fly ball was dropped in LF for a two base error to lead off the 7th, but he was left stranded at 3rd when Tomlinson struck out and Myles Schroder popped out to end the threat.

Kyle Crick had his best start of the year. He threw 62 of 89 pitches for strikes (without looking I'd guess that's the best ratio he's ever had in AA with the possible exception of one of the rain shortened outings last year) and didn't allow a walk until the 6th inning (and he promptly picked the runner off first). He also was a groundball machine as every batted ball out he got came by way of a groundout (I realize that was a terribly confusing sentence -- no fly ball outs or pop ups is what I mean). He lost the game because he surrendered a HR, which is something he has done very little of in his career. He only surrendered 2 HRs in A/A+ (to put in context, Tyler Beede has surrendered 2 HRs in 21 innings in the Cal league, Crick gave up only 1 in each of his first two full years: 111 and 68.2 IP respectively) and last night's was only the 10th HR he's surrendered as a pro (or 11th counting the AFL).  Joan Gregorio relieved Crick with 1.2 excellent innings. Gregorio was throwing a lot of four seam fastballs up in the zone and the hitters just couldn't catch up to it.

San Jose lost at Stockton (A's), 6-1

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS
CF	Jesus Galindo	3	1	1	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	0
RF	Dylan Davis	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0
3b	Ryder Jones	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
SS	Austin Slater	4	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
DH	Rafael Rodriguez	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
D.J. Snelten, L, 0-3	4.0	7	6	6	4	4	1	0	0	5.21
Martin Agosta	2.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	5.19
Daniel Slania	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00

This game matched the two worst scoring teams in the Cal league, and while its not unusual for the northern teams in the Cal league to trail the southern teams in scoring, the league leader at this point is Visalia and Modesto is tied for 2nd and both of those clubs have scored more than 50 more runs than San Jose in just three weeks' worth of games. The still injury depleted San Jose squad (which saw Dylan Davis come off the DL while Tyler Horan went back on) managed only three hits in this game and seven baserunners overall against 12 strikeouts. In all they were fairly well dominated by 7th round draft pick Lou Trivino and a trio of relievers. They managed only two XBH and only avoided their 6th shutout of the season thanks to a WP in the first inning which scored Jesus Galindo.

D.J. Snelten had a rough outing as he allowed 11 of the 23 batters he faced to reach base. He had a perfect 1st inning with 2 Ks, but then in the second, he allowed hits to the first 4 batters setting up a 4 run rally. In all in the inning he gave up 5 hits, 1 BB, and made a throwing error. And he opened up the 3rd by surrendering a solo HR. He settled down after that with two pretty clean innings, but he came out for the 5th and walked the first two batters he faced and gave up another single before Martin Agosta came in to relieve him.

Dan Slania pitched a perfect 9th. In a statistical oddity, Slania has maintained a 0.00 ERA over his first 9 appearances despite having surrendered a HR.

Augusta defeated Delmarva (Orioles), 5-4

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	Other
CF	Johneshwy Fargas	4	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	Assist
SS	Travious Relaford	3	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1
3b	Jonah Arenado	3	2	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
C	Aramis Garcia	4	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	PB
DH	John Riley	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	GW RBI

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Nathanel Santiago	4.0	2	1	1	4	3	0	0	0	2.84
Ramon Del Orbe	2.2	3	3	3	2	5	0	0	0	8.68
Dusten Knight, BS, 3	1.1	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	5.40
Raymundo Montero, S,4	1.0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3.07

Hey have I ever mentioned that the Augusta bullpen is not maybe one of the crack relief corps in the game? Because I've noticed that it's been a wee bit lackluster on occasion, and keep meaning to mention it.

Once again Greenjacket hitters played a game of "is any lead bullpen safe?" building a 4-1 lead that they took into the 7th before another bullpen blowup tied up the game. This time Ramon Del Orbe and Dusten Knight combined for the BS.

Augusta had a solid attack through the lineup as every starter other than scuffling 1b Skyler Ewing recorded a hit and four of the starters reached base twice. Fargas was displaying his many tools as he recorded two hits (one a bunt single), stole his 12th base of the season, and recorded an OF assist at 3b. Fargas and Harrison are at this point alternating between CF/RF each night. And in the end, more of the late round HS draft of 2013 picked up the bullpen as John Riley knocked in Jonah Arenado with the winning run in the 8th.  One of the really amazing things about Augusta's offensive performance early in the year is how effective they've been despite the slow starts of their OD 3-4 hitters, Garcia and Ewing, who in this game were dropped to 6th and 8th in the order.

By the way, if you look at "Cistulli's guy" on the Fangraphs Orioles prospect list, there's actually an interesting discussion of last night's Delmarva starter, including GIFs of his curveball so you can see what the Augusta lineup was facing. The other interesting prospect on this Delmarva team is the enormous 18 year old IFA signee Jomar Reyes, who doubled and struck out twice in last night's game.

I'm off for the weekend. Enjoy the games everybody!